In Applicant's earlier patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,073, issued on Jun. 16, 1992, there is described a precision optical fiber connection system in which the fiber-containing components are precision machined (i.e., etched) silicon substrates formed with V-grooves to contain the fibers. Lensing elements, which may be ball lenses, are fixably deployed in the V-grooves adjacent to the ends of each fiber. With appropriate housings, this system enables very quick and relatively inexpensive connection of one or more mating pairs of optical fibers in precise and stable coaxial alignment.
The advantages of the expanded beam coupling design derives in part from the increase in allowable misalignment tolerance over alternative fiber end butt coupling. The use of the etched or micromachined silicon subassemblies which contain the fibers provides a precision aligning mechanism of optical elements on the level of atomic crystallographic planes. The concept is finding increasingly widespread use in a variety of applications, including many which are required to meet very high stress and environmental objectives to withstand, for example, high levels of shock and vibration.
As the applications for this type of connector expand, it becomes necessary to realize an implementation which is simple and yet universally usable without substantial modifications despite a wide variety of uses. Importantly, the prior art expanded beam optical fiber connectors lack a useful male-to-male connection capability.
It also has been realized that the expanded beam coupling type of optical fiber connector of the present art lacks an important element of flexibility, namely the ability to contain the mating optical fiber ends in precise axial alignment while permitting the ends to be separated from one another within a defined range of distances, rather than having fixed the ends a set distance apart.